"The kind worth killing" by Peter Swanson

An audio book

A rich husband, Ted, 38, (his PoV) who for a week has suspected his beautiful wife of infidelity (he saw her with builder Brad) meets someone called Lilly while waiting at Heathrow for a delayed flight to the States. She's beautiful and prepared to help him kill his wife.

Lilly (when 13, her PoV) had bohemian parents. When she thought that the visiting artist, Chet, living in their US house. would rape her she killed him first.

At Lilly's suggestion, Ted has a drinking evening with Brad, to get to know him and work out a good way of killing him.

Lilly's lover at university was Eric. She discovered that he was being unfaithful and killed him while they were in England.

Ted is killed by Brad.

From Lilly's PoV we replay the airport meeting. She has a grudge against Ted's wife, Miranda, who had taken Eric from her.

Miranda doesn't trust Brad to stay cool if the police question him. She doesn't love him. He's just a means to an end.

Lilly's curious about Ted's murder. Was it really a botched burglary like the media say? An eyewitness saw Brad at Ted's place. She goes to the area and uses her looks to pick up on the gossip. She meets Brad and tells him that she knows everything and that Miranda's just using him. She tells him to arrange a meeting between the two woman, and tells him to tell Miranda that Lilly plans to blackmail her. Lilly and Brad plan to kill her at the meeting.

We get Miranda's PoV of the meeting. She's worked most of it out. She wonders if Lilly had killed Eric. Will Brad be on her side? We get Lilly's PoV of the meeting. Brad kills Miranda. Lilly poisons his celebratory drink and kills him, driving his body to where she'd buried Chet's body.

Now we get detective Kimbol's PoV and get a replay of the interviews with the characters. He hadn't believed Lilly, but had played along. He'd begun to suspect Miranda. He fancies Lilly and follows her out of hours. She knifes him. She's arrested. He survives but his behaviour gets him suspended. Lilly hears that the grounds where she buried the bodies (a meadow next to her childhood house) is being dug up the next day.

Other reviews

• goodreads
• A.X. Ahmad (The very qualities that could make it a successful film result in an uneven literary experience. ... But something else happens at end of The Kind Worth Killing, an experience that will be familiar to anyone who has spent much time sitting through a big-budget blockbuster movie. It is a kind of numbness and weariness, a mental whiplash from surviving relentless jolts. Problematic, too, is the way the story relies on character tropes. ... When brought to life on the big screen, skilled actors can give these characters nuance, but that depth does not exist on the page. Film could smooth out other clunky aspects of the novel, too. The new points of view that come late in the story require a certain suspension of disbelief; this would be perfectly acceptable in a movie)
• Kirkus reviews (While there are twists, most of them are so clearly telegraphed that only the most careless of readers won’t see)
• fictionophile (For the first quarter of the book, I wondered if it was just a modern retelling of Patricia Highsmith’s “Strangers on a train” – only this one was “Strangers on a plane“. Then the first twist showed up, then the second, then I realized I had unfairly misjudged it.)